The Eastern Panamanian montane forests cloak the rugged highlands of eastern Panama's Darién region and extend into the extreme northwest of Colombia, rising along ranges such as the Cordillera de San Blas and the Serranía del Darién, where Cerro Tacarcuna reaches about 1,875 meters. From roughly 500 meters up to around 1,800 meters the vegetation shifts from semi-deciduous moist and premontane wet forest, where wild cashew (Anacardium excelsum) dominates the canopy, into cloud forests rich in the mapora palm (Oenocarpus) and wind-stunted elfin forests dominated by Clusia species. The climate is warm and consistently humid, with mountain rainfall commonly between 3,000 and 4,000 millimeters a year and Caribbean-facing slopes wetter still. Largely intact thanks to its inaccessibility, the region harbors considerable endemism and is anchored by Darién National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Central America's largest protected areas, home to the flagship horned marsupial frog (Gastrotheca cornuta). For gardeners, its native flora includes ornamentally familiar evergreen Clusia, prized elsewhere as glossy-leaved landscape shrubs.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 7.6°N, 78.0°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.1°F by mid-century. SSP3-7.0 (current trajectory) · CHELSA v2.1 bio06 sampled across 10 of 10 points within this ecoregion's bounding box.
At a glance
Dominant biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Realm
Neotropic
Approximate area
1,175 sq mi
Conservation tier
Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 1)
About the tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome
Warm, wet, highly productive forests — including tropical rainforests — with closed canopies, near year-round growing seasons, and the richest terrestrial biodiversity on Earth. Low seasonality and high rainfall sustain dense, layered vegetation from canopy to forest floor.
Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion
No catalog plants intersect this ecoregion's zone range. As the catalog grows to cover this region's climate band, suggestions will surface here.
Collections for this ecoregion
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.
Related ecoregions
Other tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregions to explore: